White Shadows is a stylish puzzle platformer in the style of a Limbo, or going back a little bit further Abe's Odyssey or even Another World. As the first game from indie studio Monokel its cinematic ambition is one to savour. As is it's old-timey look and feel.

Even if we felt that it fell short of greatness. A snippet.

Tone is often interchangeable with atmosphere, at least when it comes to the realm of the videogame. It’s here where art direction, presentation, music, sound design, and gameplay come together to form a specific feel or underlying throughline. For White Shadows the tone often errs on the side of uneasy, stark, and foreboding. Bolstered by some spectacular art direction and cinematography, the black and white world in which it depicts is at once strange and uneasy.

Tonally White Shadows has the air of depressing dystopia, a world in which brutality lies beneath a very thin layer of beauty. Through music, through the interplay between light and shadow, and through the precise camera movements that separate the many puzzle-platforming sections, White Shadows is mesmerising.

Our Full White Shadows Review